Tuesday

This day last year I had recently started a diet. I was 222 lbs and had lost my first 2 lbs. Excited that I was no longer at my heaviest weight ever (hey, 2 lbs counts, right?? LOL) I promised my husband: "Next year I will be thin enough to run the Bolder Boulder with you." By November I had lost 70 lbs. It was very excited for the accomplishment, and immediately got into a running routine...after all a promise is a promise. I did very well with this running routine until April....and then life happened. I just got busy, didn't have time to run...didn't make time to run. But I had already promised my husband I would run the Bolder Boulder and didn't want to let him down. So even though I hadn't run in two months and was fairly certain I was going to die....I approached the starting line on Memorial Day with 55K other people. I finished in an hour and a half, in 38,361st place. I was thrilled I finished, thrilled I at least beat 16, 639 other people, and I learned a few things for next year.

1) Plan ahead a little better. I started looking for parking at 7:00 am, and didn't find a spot to park until 8:30...barely in time to catch my wave. When 55K people are looking for a spot to park near the starting line, they fill up fast. :)

2) MAKE time to run, schedule it in even if life gets busy. The evening after the race, I have never hurt that bad in my life. It hurt to sit, stand, walk, lie down....every inch of me hurt.

3) Don't try to run 6.2 miles if the most you've ran up until that point is 3 miles. Next year I want to be able to run about 10 miles, so 6.2 seems easy. :)

4) Get there in time to properly warm up and stretch. Because it took me forever to park I didn't warm up or stretch at all before the race. Probably great contributed to the previously mentioned misery.

5) Have fun. This race is a ton of fun (yes, even though it is 6.2 miles) There is live bands throughout the race, people with slip and slides in the yard. It's a huge party every mile of the way. I really tried to take it all in, laugh, and have fun...but I was really worried I'd be the girl who the golf cart picked up because I was going to slow to finish in time. haha

I'm SO glad I ran the Bolder Boulder, it really was a ton of fun and I cannot wait to do it again next year. :)